Friday, 30 December 2011

I only have a few vintage New Year postcards, but this is probably my favourite. So, a very Happy New Year to those who host and participate in Postcard Friendship Friday. Here's looking forward to another great year of postcard treats.

Sunday, 18 December 2011

My posting for this week's Sunday Stamps are stamps, but perhaps not in the conventional sense. These are in fact aerogrammes, which are basically pre-printed, pre-stamped, airmail weight letters. They almost certainly came as a gift from my mother who always bought me first day covers, but I don't remember them at all, and they were hidden away in the inside flap of my album. Bit what a find, and very appropriate for Christmas.

Christmas aerogramme, designed by Carol Walkin

Christmas aerogramme, designed by Victoria Ambrus

Christmas aerogramme, designed by Harry Titcombe

So another year is almost at its end. I can't believe how quickly this one has gone. My eldest has just finished his GCSE mock exams, my middle one is now a good 2 inches taller than me, and my youngest has just started senior school. So a big Happy Christmas to everyone reading this, and thanks for all the great comments on my blog posts throughout the year. My New Year's resolution is to find time to comment more on other people's postings.

Friday, 16 December 2011

This is not exactly a Christmas postcard, but it does have snow in the background so sort of counts. This is quite an unusual vintage postcard of a Wolf, published by S.Hildesheimer, c.1905. What's unusual about it, to my mind anyway, is that all the other Hildesheimer postcards I have are landscapes, and perhaps a couple of other subjects like children or ships, but never before have I come across an animal.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Couldn't resist sharing this vintage postcard for this week's Theme Thursday of sweet. It's a vintage postcard by the artist E.L.Beckles, and was published by Valentine. The postcard is postally unused so I'm unsure of the date but would guess late 1940's/early 1950's.

Inspired by Alan's posting in this week's Sepia Saturday of a festive feast which included stuffed larks, I have decided to follow the theme of larks with this vintage postcard called, Hark! Hark! the Lark.

Hark! Hark! the Lark, vintage postcard, c.1920's

And continuing on the food theme, and seemingly in the same postcard series, is this one called, If music be the food of love, play on.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

I thought I had just the picture for this week's Sepia Saturday when I saw Alan's post of a nurse. It was a picture of the actress Ann Todd, in a nurse's uniform, on the cover of a 1945 Picturegoer magazine. However, to my surprise I found that I had already blogged this back in March this year. Instead I am participating, but not theming, with a vintage Christmas greetings postcard from 1918. The postcard was published by Rotary.

Having blogged a different vintage Christmas postcard pretty much every day in December 2010, I'm trying to avoid blogging the same ones again this year. Pretty sure the one below is a relatively recent arrival. It's a beautiful, artist drawn, postcard of Oxford Cathedral. The publisher is S.Hildesheimer (one of my favourite publishers) and the card dates back to 1909. Unfortunetaly there's no artist name on either side of the postcard.

By the way, anyone wanting to see the 25 vintage Christmas postcards and cards I shared last year can look at my vintage postcard advent calendar ... but no peeking (in fact if my somewhat primitive code logic still works this year then it shouldn't allow you to peek past the current day).

Vintage Christmas gretings postcard of Oxford Cathedral, published by Hildesheimer

Thursday, 1 December 2011

Another week has sped past. I just don't know where this year has gone. This week's Theme Thursday of Inside was quite a challenge, but hopefully this offering hits the mark. It's a vintage New Year card, showing both the inside and outside of the card, and now we're actually in December I feel I can now start sharing Christmas and New Year items.

Vintage New Year card

For more vintage Christmas postcards, take a look at my vintage postcard advent calendar which reveals a different vintage postcard every day up to 25th December.

Sunday, 20 November 2011

Given that the theme this week on Sunday Stamps was anything you wish I dipped into my childhood First Day Cover album and was struck by this one. Given the poignancy of the current economic climate, this one seemed apt. It's a British First Day Cover featuring a gutter pair of 31p stamps commemorating the London Economic Summit of 1984. Slightly ironic that such an event was commemorated in the past as a specific event rather than the day-to-day business it has become of late.

Friday, 18 November 2011

It's been a few weeks now since I posted on Postcard Friendship Friday. I certainly can't stay 'on theme' as I have no Thanksgiving postcards. In the UK it's not something we celebrate, but I was fortunate enough to be in New York for my 40th birthday back in 2005, where we celebrated with a traditional Thanksgiving meal in the The Tavern on the Green, just off Central Park.

My vintage postcard today is one I picked up a few months ago which until today had nestled at the bottom of a rather large pile on unprocessed postcards. It's published by Raphael Tuck in the Fisher Studies series, and features Shrimpers.

Vintage postcard of Shrimpers, published by Raphael Tuck, c.1911

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards can be seen on my web site, including some recent additions

I had hoped to find something a bit mork sparkly, and a bit more inspiratinnal than this, but I'm pushed for time today so I'm afraid this will have to suffice for thie week's Theme Thursday. This is a real photographic, vintage postcard of the Treasurer's House in York, c.1949, and was published by Photochrom, number 71238.

A quick bit of research revelaed that this was the first property to be given to the National Trust, it has a 2,000 year history, has a sunken garden, and is abound with ghost stories. I think perhaps the rather sombre looking postcard may not do it justice.

Treasurer's House, York, c.1949

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site ... and finally I've started adding some of my 300+ that I acquired in September, so if you've not visited for a while you may find something new.

Sunday, 13 November 2011

It was a difficult choice for me for this week's Sunday StampsSports theme. The deicison I faced was between the 1966 World Cup stamps, or the 1948 Olympic Games stamps. Given that it's Olympic year again this year, I have opted for the latter. As with all stamps of this era, the colours are muted and understated, but I actually like this more low-key approach, with the brown 1 shilling stamp being my favourite of the four. Given the current state of the worldwide economies, I thought it was also fitting that these games are also referred to as the Austerity Olympics.

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Firstly a big Happy Birthday and best wishes to Sepia Saturday on reaching its 100th birthday - and here's to the next 100! I really had hoped to theme for this one but have not had much success. So, instead I'm sharing a vignette style, vintage postcard called The First Walk in Wellingborough, Northamptonshre.The postcard was published by Wrench and dates back to 1908.

Sunday, 6 November 2011

Well I couldn't decide whether to choose Australia or New Zealand for this week's Sunday Stamps so I ended up selecting a stamp from both. The first stamp if from Australia and depicts Christmas 1957. I am normally a firm advocate of keeping Christmas in December, but this seemed like an opportunity not to miss.

Christmas 1957, Australia

The second stamp is from New Zealand, and is an 8d stamp from New Zealand, c.1986, from the Peace series, and shows a Knight holding a banner depicting the Cross of St George - from the stained glass window of the Wellington College Memorial Hall.

Friday, 4 November 2011

For this week's Sepia Saturday I've picked up on the musical theme from this week's posting. Below is a handful of vintage postcards all featuring Illustrated Songs. All four postcards were published by Raphael Tuck, and date back to the early 1900's.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

As Sunday Stamps continues its journey around the globe, I was initially stumped to find something relevant. I was sure I had plenty of Japanese stamps to share, but either I was imagining it or I was looking in the wrong place. Fortunately however the Philippine Islands came to my rescue, so here a a few stamps from there.

Friday, 21 October 2011

For this week's Sepia Saturday I am staying loosely on theme, and in fact building on the theme of children in Alan's posting by sharing a handful of vintage postcards of Children's Corners. Having come across one on a vintage postcard some time ago, I was surprised to find them fairly common and came across 2 further ones. Apart from the first one however, there seems to be a distinct lack of children.

Thursday, 20 October 2011

I had a few options for this week's Theme Thursday theme of 'new' but finally decided on this vintage postcard of the Lower Square, Dover, New Hampshire. This is a linen style, vintage postcard published by Tichnor, number 75922. I love the vibrant colours and the quirky looking cars on this postcard which almost make it look as though it could have leapt straight from the pages of a Richard Scary children's book.

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Last week was a bit of a blur and I managed to miss Sunday Stamps, so was pleased to see a theme that I could contribute to this week. The first stamps below are a block of four, black 1c stamps dating back to 1937.

Malaya, Straits Settlements, c.1937

The second set of stamps are commemorating the Silver Wedding Anniversary of George VI and the Quenn Mother.

Malaya, Malacca, c.1948

The geography of these states at the time is, to me, a little confusing in places, but I think I'm right in saying that Malacca was one of the British Straits Settlements, along with Dingding, Penang and Singapore. Malay itself comprising of the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States and the British Straits Settlements. I'm quite sure however that it's a lot more complex than this so when I can find the time perhaps I'll have to do a bit more in depth research, but hopefully the lovely stamps can make up for any shortcomings in my research to date.

Friday, 14 October 2011

For this week's Postcard Friendship Friday I thought I'd share some vintage postcards of Dublin that I picked up a couple of months back, which as with so many others remain in the 'to be processed' pile. Most of these old postcards have been written but not actually posted, so unfortunately I am unable to share the date, but would guess the first one is probably 1930's, and the other three probably 1900's - 1920's. I particularly like the trams on the wide, but relatively uncrowded streets.

Once again I am struggling to stay on theme for Sepia Saturday, and this week I've also decided against making a tenuous link. Instead I have dipped into my pile of unprocessed, recently acquired vintage postcards and come up with this one of the Pier at Southampton. What I particularly like about this postcard is the number of ships either moored, queuing, or travelling in convoy in the background. I suspect this is no longer a frequent site in Southampton these days, and I would imagine that the railway tracks no longer go right down on to the pier.

Good to see Theme Thursday back up and running. Apologies for being a bit late this week but work has been a bit crazy these past few days. I thought this vintage postcard, called Hope, of fisherman suited this week's theme of Fish quite well. The image on the postcard conjures up quite a romantic vision of fishing but I've never been a fisherman. However, I was in the pub last weekend with a very enthusiastic friend who had been fishing that day and actually had taken pictures on his mobile phone of all the fish he caught that day.

Friday, 7 October 2011

I came across this old postcard a few weeks ago but until now it had managed to hide itself away towards the bottom of the 'to be processed' pile. It's a vintage postcard from 1913 of, I assume, a Dutch boy, in clogs and smoking a pipe. The postcard was published by Meissner & Buch in the 'Jung Holland' series.

Dutch boy with clogs and a pipe, c.1913

Even further in my distant memory was another Dutch vintage postcard I picked up a few years ago. Thanks to filing the scans under something meaningful (and memorable) I was able to find this one as well.

Try as I may, for this week's Sepia Saturday I am alas not theming. Instead I am offering up a vintage postcard called 'Letter From Mama', c.1903. The postcard was published by S.Hildesheimer and the written greeting reads 'We have received a letter from M to say they will not be able to visit us on Sunday. Love from all.' Maybe however, one of these girls moved to Denmark and became a suffragette, or maybe the letter is from their mother, who happened to be a suffragette in Denmark.Alternatively I could just be clutching at straws trying to make up for my inability to theme this week.

Letter from Mama, c.1903

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, and frustratingly still a pile of 200 or so to process.

Sunday, 2 October 2011

Well, coming from Europe and having a reasonable number of British stamps, I was spoilt for choice for my submission for this week's Sunday Stamps. I did originally think of sharing some Victorian stamps, but although interesting the colours are quite muted, so I decided to jump forwards 100 years and share a First Day Cover from Elizabeth II's reign in 1969. I'm not quite sure why the theme, whilst claiming to be 'architecture' is exclusively Cathedrals. I would have thought that there were plenty of other great architectural feats like palaces and bridges which could have been equally good candidates.

First Day Cover, British Architecture, c.1969

The architectural feats pictured on the stamps are clockwise from top left:

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Despite going to various postcard events, and rummaging through antique and charity shops, I have never come across a vintage Halloween postcard here in the UK. However, not wanting to be left out of this week's Postcard Friendship Friday I have decided to share a vintage birthday postcard instead. This is in Valentine's Birthday Horoscope series, and shows the star sign Sagittarius.

Friday, 30 September 2011

Despite searching through both my vintage postcards and my vintage magazines, I was at a loss to find anything relating to any of the obvious prompts in this week's Sepia Saturday. I have nothing on Australia, Queensland, polo, horses or toys. But then I noticed Jean Harlow. I don't actually have anything relating to Jean Harlow either, but there's a place called Harlow in Essex, and I do have lots of vintage postcards of Essex. So, in convoluted and roundabout way I am theming this week, albeit a bit tenuously.

Essex is one of those places where I can't remember ever going. Ok, so I've probably been to the parts of it which border on to East London, such as Epping Forest, but I'm pretty sure I've never made it as far as the coast. When I used to travel abroad a lot with work, I would always enjoy gazing out of the aircraft window as we descended towards London along the outer reaches of the Thames Estuary, with Essex to the north and Kent to the south, mentally adding both coasts to my list of places to visit.

Clacton-on-Sea, pier approach and bridge, c.1916

Southend-on-Sea, beach and pleasure yachts, c.1926

Westcliff-on-Sea, on the cliffs

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, including a recently added Essex page. I still have a backlog of approx 200 to process but hopefully they'll get added over the next few weeks, although given the fantastic weather we're enjoying in the UK this week, I can't see me spending much time in front of the scanner or computer this weekend.

Thursday, 22 September 2011

From Alan's post in this week's Sepia Saturday I've picked out the theme of sideburns. Perhaps this was not the most obvious of themes but it's one that struck me the most. Also, as I've not posted carte de visite for a while I thought I'd shelve the vintage postcards for this week and share a CDV instead. There's no clue as to who this person is, but he does bear a striking resemblance to Colin Firth ... maybe a long lost relative. The annotation on the back of the card simply reads, For Nelly, 1866.

Sunday, 18 September 2011

This week's Sunday Stamps was a bit of a challenge for me. As I've no doubt mentioned before, my stamp collection was handed down from my father and mainly consisted of stamps that were sent on letters and postcards from relatives who were serving in various British Commonwealth countries (mainly Africa). I had to search low and high for any South American stamps at all, but I eventually found these 2 in what was probably a page from my very first stamp album. Unfortunately however I know next to nothing about these stamps. I did tyr and research them on the internet but became not much useful information turned up ... suspect I was being too impatient. So I have no idea of the dates of these stamps.

The first stamp is a 3 Pesos stamp of Tierra del Fuego, and the second is a 50 centavos stamp of Pozo de Petroleo en el Mar (which roughly translates to Oil Well in the Sea). This one has been overstamped with Servicio Oficial.

Friday, 16 September 2011

I picked up this vintage postcard a couple of weeks ago in a batch of 200 or so. To be honest I kept moving it lower down in the pile as it's quite tatty, but having taken the time to look at it in more detail this evening, I think it's really quite beautiful. The colours of the sky are incredible and feel very autumnal, which is just about right as the leaves start to turn here in the UK. The postcard is of Penzance, Cornwall, c.1907 and was published by S.Hildesheimer in the Cornish Views series, number 5377. The artist is Robert Gallon.

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About Me

Having grown up in one of the London suburbs, I'm interested in John Betjeman, J.G.Ballard, London suburbs, Avengerland (Borehamwood area where the classic 1960's and 1970's TV shows were filmed). More recently I have become interested in Psychogeography and Urban, Suburban and Coastal Wandering, which is where most of the subject matter in this blog now comes from.

I'm also an avid music listener and collector since the late 1970's. I like all sorts of genres ... punk, post-punk, new wave, industrial, ambient, krautrock, alternative, indie, goth ... naturally I have quite a few items I no longer need in physical format, so here's a link to my records and CDs for sale

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